Well, not the way the President is proposing:

Those now-illegal immigrants could then apply for permanent residence in the United States, although those in the temporary worker program would get no preference over other "Green Card" applicants from foreign countries, officials said.

"Out of common sense and fairness, our laws should allow willing workers to enter our country and fill jobs that Americans are not filling," Bush said Wednesday.

How 'bout out of common sense and fairness we don't reward people for breaking our laws? How 'bout we grant visas, Green Cards, and citizenship to people who don't sneak into the damned country? Would that be common sense? Would that be fair?

At the end of the story we get this:

But Colorado Republican Rep. Thomas Tancredo is among the congressional conservatives who promise to fight provisions they view as rewarding lawbreakers.

"People who are here illegally -- they need to be deported," Tancredo told CNN. "People who hire them need to be fined. If they keep doing it they need to be sent to jail, It's against the law."

This seems pretty obvious. How is what Tancredo saying not true?

If you snuck into another country without that government's permission, wouldn't you expect to be deported if you were caught? Why is this not a reasonable expectation?

So the way our immigration policy should be reformed is that we should reform the INS to do a better job of finding, identifying, and deporting illegal immigrants. We should boost funding and training for the Border Patrol. And we should provide more incentives for people who want to work in the U.S. to come here legally. I would fully support Bush's proposals for new immigrants--we need to grant more temporary visas to works, especially those from Mexico, and include a sort of fast-tracking if they're contributing to society (keeping their job, paying taxes, etc.). But I'm not for granting amnesty for people who snuck into the country in the first place.